EA has updated its list of Service Updates, revealing multiplayer servers that are hitting end-of-life (thanks Polygon). They say such decisions are never easy, explaining: "We would rather our hard-working engineering and IT staff focus on keeping a positive experience for the other 99% of customers playing our more popular games. We hope you have gotten many hours of enjoyment out of the games and we appreciate your ongoing patronage." They also announce a change for their free-to-play games, saying they will all begin using the same virtual currency called "Play4Free Funds," a name which may strike users as ironic when they pay for them. There are only a few PC titles impacted: The Sims 2 for PC/MAC and TheSims2.com will shut down on January 14, FIFA Soccer 11 for PC and consoles will conclude on January 11, and FIFA Manager 11 for PC ends on January 3.

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Beamer wrote on Jan 1, 2013, 04:53:This is what I said in the last topic about this. Anyone playing a 3 year old Madden game isn't an EA customer, really. If they hold onto it that long they're less likely to pay $60 for current rosters and more likely to not care about rosters and either not really play online (because the community overwhelmingly moves to current rosters) or just buys the 2 year old version for $2.99, the going rate for a 2 year old sports game at GameStop.

Oh, really? How about those people playing NHL 2009? Since EA no longer releases NHL games on the PC, when they shut down online servers for NHL 2009 a year ago, all PC players were pretty much shut out of the online component permanently. There are quite a few people who would love to play a "modern" NHL game (see the forums on breakaway.net), in fact there a a large number of people modding present rosters into a 4+ year old game, simply because they have no other choice! They WOULD be EA customers... but EA doesn't want them.

So your statement about the people being cut off not being willing to pay for new games, not being interested in new rosters, and not playing online are demonstrably false in this case.... EA just doesn't care a bit about them...